https://github.com/lfroms/mobile-device-kit

📱 A convenient Swift package for communicating with Apple devices.
https://github.com/lfroms/mobile-device-kit

apple ios macos mobiledevice swift

Last synced: about 1 month ago
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📱 A convenient Swift package for communicating with Apple devices.

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/lfroms/mobile-device-kit
• Owner: lfroms
• License: gpl-3.0
• Created: 2022-11-12T03:19:12.000Z (about 2 years ago)
• Default Branch: main
• Last Pushed: 2022-12-12T04:25:11.000Z (about 2 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2023-03-09T03:52:06.522Z (almost 2 years ago)
• Topics: apple, ios, macos, mobiledevice, swift
• Language: Swift
• Homepage:
• Size: 63.5 KB
• Stars: 4
• Watchers: 2
• Forks: 0
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • License: LICENSE

Awesome Lists containing this project

README

        


  📱

  


  MobileDeviceKit 

  




A convenient Swift API for interacting with mobile devices on macOS.




  

  

  

  

  



## About

MobileDeviceKit aims to make it easy to discover and interact with mobile devices attached to the system in a Swift application. Internally, MobileDeviceKit interops with Apple's private `MobileDevice.framework` which is used internally by other Apple programs such as Xcode, Finder, and Apple Configurator.

MobileDeviceKit is incomplete and is a **work-in-progress**.

## Goals

- Asynchronous APIs by default using modern tools (such as Async Swift and Combine).

- Full abstraction for any private APIs used internally.

- Support for interacting with wirelessly-connected devices.

- Support for launching applications with `lldb`.

## Why shouldn't I use this?

- You are building a mission-critical app and can't justify debugging issues with private APIs as they change.

- You need to bundle this package in a universal binary. MobileDeviceKit links against your system's frameworks, which may not be universal.

- There are probably other more actively maintained projects available (see below).

## Why should I use this?

- You are building a macOS app in Swift and want to be able to easily interact with mobile devices.

- Your app is non-critical and you've accepted any risks with using private system APIs.

- You don't want to deal with managing reverse-engineered headers or interacting with `MobileDevice`'s cumbersome C APIs directly.

## Can I contribute?

**Yes, please!** If you have a need for this kind of package, please extend it to suit your needs. All and any contributions are welcome.

The symbol table for `MobileDevice.framework` can be dumped by running:

```bash

nm /Library/Apple/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework/Versions/Current/MobileDevice

```

If you prefer to reimplement parts of `MobileDevice.framework` instead without using the private framework, suggestions are welcome.

## Alternatives

- [CoreDevice _via_ `devicectl`](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/Updates/Xcode)

   - CoreDevice is a **first party** framework that exposes a public, documented command line tool: `devicectl`.

   - The `devicectl` utility can be used to perform nearly all development-related tasks on wired and wirelessly-connected devices.

   - Note: CoreDevice only supports devices running iOS 17 or newer.

- [Apple Configurator](https://support.apple.com/en-ca/apple-configurator)

   - Apple Configurator is a **first party** application that provides a public, documented command line tool: `cfgutil`.

   - You'll probably want to use this for most things. However, it does not support wirelessly connected devices or debugging.

   

### Open source

- [ios-deploy](https://github.com/ios-control/ios-deploy) — Popular command line utility with support for launching installed apps.

- [mobile-run](https://github.com/ionic-team/native-run) — Utility for communicating with iOS devices written in TypeScript.

- [libimobiledevice](https://github.com/libimobiledevice) — Open source library written in C for communicating with iOS devices.

- [mobiledevice](https://github.com/imkira/mobiledevice) — Command line utility.

- [SDMMobileDevice](https://github.com/samdmarshall/SDMMobileDevice) — Drop-in open source replacement for `MobileDevice.framework`.

- [mobdevim](https://github.com/DerekSelander/mobdevim) — Command line utility.

## License

MobileDeviceKit is released under the [GPL-3.0 License](LICENSE) unless otherwise noted.